I met with an entrepreneur yesterday and we talked and he told me that he originally had this idea in 2003 and pitched it to someone and they loved it and they were willing to fund it, but it did not come through. 2007, again he pitched the idea at Seed Forum in London and everyone loved it once again he did not launch the business because no-one funded the idea. Fast forward to 2014, he is still pitching the idea and tells me that the only way that he would launch is if he has an investor. I got really frustrated with him, my bad.. I feel really awful about it. I have written about how ideas don’t matter and why startup founders should not be focused on raising money. What really frustrated me was the fact that he has been sitting on this idea and has not done anything for 10 years, a decade! can you imagine what a waste of time? I like entrepreneurs who hack, bootstrap and build something to show. Entrepreneurship and founding a Startup is tinkering, you need to test a lot of hypothesis and see what works. Waiting for some investor or grant or whatever to launch is such a turn off. Why would anybody bet on you if you don’t bet on yourself or your vision to build a company?
I believe in Doertocracy, I believe in the doers. Do something, make something, show me rather than tell me. I can lock myself in a room and come up with a million ideas, it does not mean squat. Figure out how to launch the idea, solve the problem, meet your customer, create value show that it works. Show it to yourself that it works. It is so frustrating to see so many people just live in their heads and not give life to their ideas.
With all the tools out there you can start anything with almost no investment. Create a Facebook page, start a blog about what you want to do. Create a signup page, talk to your peers and those who are starting up. There are so many ways to get started. I understand why the entrepreneur has been waiting for 10 years, because the first step is the hardest. Maybe our meeting pushed him to take that first step. I don’t know and I hope he does.
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